Edmonton Catholic School board votes to rename Grandin School, remove mural

The Edmonton Catholic School board voted unanimously Monday morning to rename Grandin School.

Immediately following a special meeting of school board trustees, work began to remove the name Grandin and the mural depicting Bishop Grandin from the exterior of the school located in central Edmonton.

A process will now begin to rename the school, something the board of trustees said will take some time.

“It is extremely important that we are thoughtful in naming the school,” trustee Laura Thibert said.

“I know we would rather take time and do it well and honour the voices of our stakeholders so that the school has a positive journey with a new identity.”

“One thing we can do right now is to ensure that we are not elevating historical figures whose actions — actions that never should have been deemed acceptable at any point in our history — no longer reflect our societal values,” added trustee Debbie Engel.

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The school was named 105 years ago after Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin, an early advocate of the residential school system who lobbied the Canadian government to fund residential schools in the late 1800s.

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In recent weeks, there have been calls across the country and right here in Edmonton to rename schools, train stations and other public places that are named after the architects of the residential school system.

The push comes following the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. last month. Then last week, an estimated 751 unmarked graves were found at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

Elder Betty Letendre of the Council of Elders attended the virtual meeting and welcomed the plan to change the school’s name.

“It will be, I know, much appreciated across this country that you have recognized the lives of those children that never made it home,” Letendre said.

Letendre said she became a Catholic through her grandmother, who was a residential school survivor. She has a long history with Edmonton Catholic Schools; her children were enrolled in the division and her sister went to Grandin School.

“I brought you our history. I brought you who we were as a people along with the Council of Elders and I honour you today as you honour my people today and the name change. It’s heartbreaking. The schools, no matter what names they have, and when we teach the children in those buildings, we should do it to the utmost best of our ability to teach them not what’s on the name of that school because we need to teach our children a better future.”

During the special meeting of school board trustees Monday morning, trustees said the process to rename the school will include community consultation. A timeline for the name change has not been established. The school division said it will determine a renaming process over the next few months.

In Calgary on Monday, the Catholic school district also voted to change the name of Bishop Grandin High School.

Earlier this month, Edmonton city council unanimously passed a motion to cover up the Grandin LRT mural and to remove the Grandin name from the LRT station.